Mobile City Council 'bails out' Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic with $25,000

View full sizeAlabama quarterback Daryl Norris of Fairhope, third from left, takes a snap during practice Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009, at Lipscomb Stadium in Mobile, Ala. The Mobile City Council has agreed to give $25,000 to support the game. (Press-Register/Mike Kittrell)

MOBILE, Ala. -- The Mobile City Council voted Tuesday to put up $25,000 in support of a high school all-star game, a move one of the council members called a "bailout."

Officials with the event, the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic, said they were forced to come to the city for the money when other funding sources fell through.

Victor Knight, of the Mishkin Group, the game’s organizer, said his company was expecting $50,000 in support from the Mobile County Commission, but only ended up receiving $17,500 through the Mobile Bay Sports Authority.

The County Commission created the Sports Authority to help attract sporting events to the area. It is largely funded by the commission, which also appoints its board of trustees.

Nancy Johnson, spokeswoman for the county, said the Sports Authority makes its own decisions on what to fund.

The city of Mobile also, though to a lesser extent, also funds the authority and will funnel its $25,000 pledge through the organization as well.

Knight, the event’s executive director, said in an interview that the Mishkin Group will likely spend more than $180,000 in putting the game together.

That cost includes money to bring the players to Mobile, house them, and rent equipment for the game. Payments to the state high school athletic associations alone will cost $40,000, he said.

Council members said they were caught by surprise by the sudden request for funding.

"Why is it that people always come back to the city" when they need money, asked Councilwoman Gina Gregory. "They expect the city to bail them out."

Joe Mishkin, president of the Mishkin Group, told the council that this year’s game — scheduled for Saturday — would go on regardless of the council’s decision. It’s too late to do otherwise, he said. The players already are in town.

If the council refused, he said, he might have trouble paying all his obligations and the event would almost certainly collapse next year.

The council approved the funding on a vote of 5-1, with Councilwoman Bess Rich voting against and Gregory abstaining.

Council President Reggie Copeland, who pushed hard for the money to be approved, said the Mishkin Group needn’t bother coming back next year.

If the game can’t support itself by then, he said, it will die because the city won’t be coming to the rescue. The Mishkin Group is close to landing a major sponsor for next year, Copeland said.

The Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic has been in Mobile since 1988. The Mishkin Group took over management of the game from the Ladd-Peebles Stadium board in 2009.

By then, the game was struggling to attract fans in recent years, though it once routinely filled the stands with thousands of football devotees eager to see the best high school players in the region.